The Knicks won a game this week! And The Answer may be coming to New York (so the question must be: Will a desperate team do anything to keep their fans interested?). But with last Friday’s loss, the Knicks established the worst 10-game start in franchise history. Things could be a lot worse, though; here are some other bad starts throughout history that may help them feel better about themselves: The Hindenburg blew up over New Jersey on the first of its 10 scheduled round-trips between Europe and the United States, killing 36 people; the Titanic hit an iceberg and sunk four days into its maiden voyage; William Henry Harrison died of a cold one month into his presidency in 1841; Wally Backman lasted four days as manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks before he was unceremoniously shown the door; Gilligan’s three-hour tour got off to an inauspicious start, getting stranded on a deserted island for 15 years, until the castaways were miraculously rescued, followed by them buying …

The Yankees win the World Series and as soon as you can say the words “Johnny Damon wants a four-year contract” the rest of the New York–area teams go down the tubes. They went a combined 5-11 this past week. It must be a hangover. Are all the local teams riding on the Yankees’ coattails and going to all of their parties? It’s also possible that many of the area teams just stink. The Knicks and Nets went a combined 0-7 this week, and are 1-16 for the year, for instance. It was only the always-good Devils that skewed the combined record by going 4-0, and they barely count as a local team.

Here’s a day-by-day look at the past seven days.

Friday: The injury-riddled Nets lost to Philly, which kept them winless for the season, and the Devils beat the Islanders in a continuation of the New Jersey–Long Island War of 1801, in which it was so cold and icey out during the Battle of Massapequa that both sides just gave up …

All anybody’s talking about in the New York area is the Islanders’ first regulation win over the Rangers (though Jimmy Rollins predicted it on Monday). You can’t walk down the street without somebody stopping you and asking all about the hockey team from Long Island. Will they get on a roll? Is John Tavares the real deal? Islanders, Islanders, Islanders! Everybody’s forgetting all about the bad start of the two local basketball teams, and does anybody even know that the Yankees are in the World Series this year? All the Islanders-all-the-time talk is really taking the pressure off the other local teams.

Here at Hot Stove, we know that the Yankees are in the World Series again, as you can’t get anything by us. The Bronx Bombers paid their $200 million entry fee into the Series, setting up a rematch of the 1950 Fall Classic. And with so many off-days, it seems like there are about 59 years between games in this postseason. In the Series we’ve already seen Cliff Lee nonchalantly put the Bombers’ bats to sleep, …

The Giants and Jets both beat division archrivals this past week. And both are 2-0 and sitting atop their respective divisions. The Giants went down to Texas and paid the Cowboys back for beating them in the first-ever game at the Meadowlands in 1976 (Dallas won, 24-14). Of course, Giants Stadium didn’t receive quite the same amount of hoopla as Cowboys Stadium has gotten this week. Here are some reviews from 33 years ago when the Giants home first opened:

“It just looks like a regular football stadium. Where is the 60-yard JumboTron? Where are the go-go dancers? What do they plan to do here, just play football?”

“Where do you put 78,000 angry New Jersey residents to watch Doug Kotar gain 500 yards a season? The new Giants Stadium, that’s where.”

“The new stadium is a modern marvel, but can they do something about that swampy smell?”

“It just goes to show you the power of the Mob that they got this stadium built all the way out …

Here we go again. This week we’ll have another all-schmuck edition and just make it a team effort. The locals were the dregs again this week, going a combined 4-13-2. Other highlights: We had the Sean Avery vs. Martin Brodeur heavyweight bout of the century (Avery 1, Brodeur 0). Citi Field and Yankee Stadium III open for business tonight (well, Citi kind opened already with the St. Johns/Georgetown game). And Sports Illustrated has somewhat bizarrely picked the Mets to win the World Series. That’s really going out on a limb. Sure, they have a good team, but is the magazine aware of what happened to them the last two seasons? Now Carlos Beltran can declare, “Tell Jimmy Rollins we’re the team to jinx this year.” Throw another log on the fire – collapse, choke, jinx. I think Nostradamus picked the Mets to win the wild card this season back in 1555. He also predicted John Maine would round into shape, but Francisco Rodriguez would crack a rib during one of his post-save …

The local coaches were in the spotlight this week. Tom Renney was sent packing, with his opposite, John Tortarella, coming in to replace him. Joe Girardi is already on the hot seat before the season even starts. He took a page out of Tom Coughlin’s book by taking the Yankees to a pool hall to distract them from what a poor job he did last year. And Jerry Manuel is running his first spring training with the Mets, and is doing it his way, which means unconventionally and wackily. This week’s prize for the Hot Stove Player of the Week: A copy of Tom Renney’s upcoming book How I Made Petr Prucha a Healthy Scratch All Season Because of a $10 Bet With Perry Pearn.

Winner

Devin Harris: The Nets point guard made the shot of the year, when he threw in a buzzer beater at half court to beat Philadelphia on Monday (and wasn’t he fouled on his first attempt anyway?). He also had 39 points and eight assists in that …

There were only two sports played this week, but the New York area is blessed with five teams in those sports (though the words ‘blessed’ and ‘Islanders’ haven’t really gone together in 26 years or so). It’s been a roller-coaster week for the locals: The Knicks beat Boston but lost to the lowly Oklahoma City Supersonics. (Could they have picked a more craptastic name than Thunder? The move to OK had Jack Sikma rolling over in his grave – well, he’s not actually dead yet, but he rolled over in his sleep. Shawn Kemp was so distraught about the Supersonics leaving Seattle that he hasn’t fathered a child in four months.) The Rangers lost to Washington, beat Pittsburgh, then lost to Montreal. The Devils won two and then lost two. The Islanders and Nets were the only consistent teams – the Isles consistently bad (0-4) and the Nets good (3-1). Meanwhile, the Giants are getting ready for the throwdown in the Meadowlands against Philly, and the Jets are getting …

The end of the week is finally here. The Giants won again, but the Jets were a disappointment, holding off the New York-New York Super Bowl talk for now. The Nets are a surprising 9-8, the Knicks are a surprising 8-10, Stephon Marbury is surprisingly still here, Plaxico Burress is not-surprisingly gone and old friend Sean Avery surprised nobody with his “sloppy seconds” comment. He’s now on his fourth team in eight years. What does that make him? This week’s prize for the winner is a Glock, a gun permit, a holster and lessons at a shooting range.
Winner 
Devin Harris: Sure, he had a clunker (along with the whole team) on Wednesday vs. Washington (18 points, two assists), but he led the Nets to wins this week with dominating performances against Utah (34 points, six assists) on Friday and Phoenix (47 points, eight assists) on …

They loved the nightlife. They loved to boogie. They loved the ladies. They dressed with style. They had Fu Manchus. They had muttonchops. They were cooler than Fonzie. They were cooler than Coolio. They were cooler than LL Cool J. They were cooler than a pack of Kools. Here are the top 10 hippest, coolest New York sports dudes of the past 40 years.
10. Mike Piazza: The former catcher brought his mullet from LA to New York and turned the Mets into winners. Along the way he dated (and married) Playboy playmates, played the drums and appeared on Baywatch. He was California cool (even though he’s from Pennsylvania) and had the mustache to prove it.
9. Derek Jeter: The Yankees shortstop is going through Hollywood actresses like David Wells going through a bag of …

Here are the answers to yesterday’s quiz.
1. When the Nets first joined the ABA for the 1967-’68 season they were called the New Jersey Americans.
2. Kevin Loughery was the Nets coach when they joined the NBA in 1976.
3. Buck Williams has played in the most career games for the Nets, with 635.
4. Richard Jefferson has the second most career points for the Nets, with 8,507.
5. Jason Kidd has made the most career three-pointers, with 813.
6. The single-season points-per-game record is held by Rick Barry, who averaged 31.5 points in 1971-’72.
7. Second on the list for career assists with the Nets is Bill Melchionni, with 3,044….

See how much you know about the history of the tri-state area’s other basketball team. They’ve played in Long Island, New Jersey and (soon?) Brooklyn. Look out, Connecticut, it’ll be your turn in 10 or 20 years. The answers will be posted tomorrow.
1. When the Nets first joined the ABA, what was their name?
2. Who was the Nets coach when they joined the NBA?
3. Who has played in the most career games for the Nets?
4. Buck Williams has the most career points for the Nets. Who is second?
5. Who has made the most career three-pointers for the Nets?
6. Who holds the single-season points-per-game record for the franchise?
7. Jason …

New York has had its share of great announcers, goofy announcers, pro’s pro announcers and just plain bad announcers. For this list I’m going to use the late ’60s/early ’70s as the cutoff date. Mel Allen and Red Barber were legends, but they weren’t my legends. I’ve also cheated. In some cases I’ve listed announcing teams and in others, just an individual. So here is my top-10 best announcers/teams of the last 40 years. And no, you won’t find Suzyn Waldman, John Sterling or Fran Healy on this list.
10. Jim Kaat: The 16-time Gold Glove winner and three-time All-Star pitcher was stuck in a booth with a hodgepodge of Yankee shills from 1994–2006 (and a one-year stint in 1986). Always classy, he stood out by telling it like it is, and had a humble, non-shtick way about him.
9. Mike Breen: New York native Breen …